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Polemi fire, June 2024 Πολέμι · Choulou, Polemi, Psathi

Out · last detection 12 Jun 2024, 11:13 UTC

The fire started on 11 June 2024 in Polemi, Cyprus, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 1,617 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 9 municipalities.

It is the largest fire in Paphos since 2016 (of 13 with a page). The largest in Cyprus in 2024, of 7.

Burnt area
1,617ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
2days
11 Jun 2024 – 12 Jun 2024
Municipalities hit
9
municipalities
Started on
11 Jun
2024
Heat detections
51
in a single hotspot: 213 MW
Danger at start
20
Moderate · FWI index
Energy released
2.8GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

12 Jun 2024
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 11 Jun12 Jun

How it evolved, day by day

1112

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

32°high
27km/h · peak gust
42%lowest humidity

It had gone one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 6.0 mm on 22 Jun.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Choulou Χούλου 147 inhabitants · 0.2 km from the town
    690 ha reached on 11 Jun
    58 %
  2. Polemi Πολέμι 848 inhabitants · 0.9 km from the town where it started
    336 ha reached on 11 Jun
    27 %
  3. Psathi Ψάθι 110 inhabitants · 0.0 km from the town
    224 ha reached on 11 Jun
    99 %
  4. Lemona Λεμώνα 51 inhabitants · 0.2 km from the town
    160 ha
    21 %
  5. Agios Dimitrianos Άγιος Δημητριανός Πάφου 91 inhabitants · 1.1 km from the town
    106 ha reached on 11 Jun
    19 %
  6. Thrinia Δρυνιά 55 inhabitants · 1.4 km from the town
    51 ha reached on 11 Jun
    9.8 %
  7. Kourdaka Κούρτακα 7 inhabitants · 0.1 km from the town
    30 ha
    20 %
  8. Milia Pafou Μηλιά Πάφου 14 inhabitants · 1.9 km from the town
    24 ha reached on 11 Jun
    12 %
  9. Kannaviou Κανναβιού 175 inhabitants · 2.8 km from the town
    0 ha
    0.0 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the official perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance is from the town centre to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

What burned

  • Agricultural areas93 %
  • Sclerophyllous scrub7.2 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 45 %

Natura 2000 sites (European Environment Agency, 2024 release) crossed by the perimeter.

Land cover inside the perimeter according to Corine Land Cover, as reported by Copernicus.

Official record

According to Τμήμα Δασών, this fire started on 11 June 2024 and burned 1,490 ha (the satellite measured 1,617 ha).

Τμήμα Δασών (Departamento de Bosques de Chipre), catálogo de incendios forestales. This is the agency’s consolidated statistic: it measures the area in its own way, which is why it can differ from the satellite.

The weather day by day

ECMWF ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, the standard reference for past weather, and the Canadian Fire Weather Index (the same system Copernicus uses), computed by WorldFires from that data. Days after the fire run until the first rain.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
11 Jun 29.7 °C 47 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
12 Jun 31.5 °C 42 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
13 Jun after 33.6 °C 33 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
14 Jun after 36.0 °C 29 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
15 Jun after 31.3 °C 40 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
16 Jun after 28.9 °C 64 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
17 Jun after 27.9 °C 62 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
18 Jun after 29.0 °C 63 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
19 Jun after 29.8 °C 62 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
20 Jun after 30.2 °C 64 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
21 Jun after 29.0 °C 58 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
22 Jun after 27.4 °C 66 % 30 km/h 6.0 mm Very low 3

Before and after, from space

Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.

Before · 4 Jun 2024
After · 19 Jun 2024

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

The smoke

CAMS · Copernicus

On 14 June 2024 the air beside the fire reached 27 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 22: 1.4 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak27 µg/m³
Days over the guideline5 days
PM1098 µg/m³
Optical depth0.32
9101112131415
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)

Detections table · 51Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
⬇ Download CSV Times in UTC. Each detection is a 375 m pixel: a large fire yields hundreds per pass.
Date and timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Cyprus ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Polemi fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 11 June 2024 and 12 June 2024: 2 days between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 1,617 hectares (16.2 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 9 municipalities: Choulou (690 ha, 58 %); Polemi (336 ha, 27 %); Psathi (224 ha, 99 %); Lemona (160 ha, 21 %); Agios Dimitrianos (106 ha, 19 %); Thrinia (51 ha, 9.8 %); Kourdaka (30 ha, 20 %); Milia Pafou (24 ha, 12 %); Kannaviou (0 ha, 0.0 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 0.0 km of Psathi. That is the distance to the perimeter or nearest hotspot; it does not mean it entered the houses.
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.5 °C, humidity dropped to 42 % and gusts hit 27 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 21, class High.
Where does this data come from?
From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Cyprus (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.

Where to verify it

A satellite detection is not an official report. Final figures and the fire’s status are published by each country’s emergency service.

Emergency number: 112 · 1407

Satellite cross-check

Does something look wrong on this page?

This page is built from satellite data and official records, and it sometimes gets things wrong: the wrong dates, the wrong town, two fires merged into one, or something that was not a wildfire at all. If you know this fire first-hand (you live nearby, saw it, fought it or reported on it), tell us what really happened and we will check it.

Report an error
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy. This is not an emergency service: if there is a fire now, call 112 · 1407.

Where this data comes from

The perimeter and land cover come from the Copernicus European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS), measured on MODIS and Sentinel-2 imagery and published under CC BY 4.0. Heat detections come from the VIIRS sensors aboard Suomi-NPP and NOAA-20, distributed by NASA FIRMS at 375 m resolution. Municipal boundaries come from geoBoundaries ADM2 (Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported). The area per municipality is computed by WorldFires by crossing the perimeter with those boundaries, so it may differ slightly from each country’s official figure.